Legal News Archive: November 2015

Too little, too late is a common saying, but sometimes it isn’t true. Sometimes it would be proper to say “just enough, too late,” when the authorities do the right thing only after something terrible has happened. A situation in Bloomington, Illinois is the latest example of just enough, too late.

On November 15th, 2014, four employee were killed due to the leak of a toxic chemical at a DuPont manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas. Now, a year later, a series of safety guidelines have been approved by the US Chemical Safety Board in hopes that a similar incident never occurs again.

If you’d asked even the most jaded individual, it’s unlikely they would have guessed that medication errors during surgery are as common as they are. They might have expected that 10 percent of surgeries include a medication error. Perhaps they would have even guessed that twenty-five percent did. But it’s extremely unlikely that anyone would have guessed that nearly fifty percent of all surgeries have a medication error.

When you get hurt on the job, you want to believe your employer will do what is right. You want to believe that a proper investigation will be held, and that the results of the investigation will determine how to proceed. You want to believe you work for an honest company, and that no subterfuge would take place. But all too often, companies can’t be trusted to do what’s right.

On March 5th, 2015, off-duty police officer Pedro Abad was arrested for drunk driving after an accident that left two people dead. He had been driving the wrong way down the turnpike when the accident occurred. This wasn’t Abad’s first drunk driving arrest. He had already been cited multiple times for driving under the influence, yet somehow still had his license.

Who is responsible if a driverless car gets into an accident? As Google, Volvo, BMW, and other companies have begun to test-drive their new models in various countries, accidents have occurred. Though the companies have been quick to blame other drivers, the ultimate question of liability still remains.

Driver safety is extremely important, which is why most high schools offer a driver education class, and why all states require a license to drive. We want to know that the people we share the road with know the laws they are supposed to follow, and we want to make sure that someone has verified that they know how to drive.

It is always troubling when something goes so wrong that a school bus has to be evacuated. But if the bus driver, the school, and the school district handle things correctly, parents are left reassured that their children are in safe hands. Unfortunately, it seems the authorities rarely handle things correctly. Sure they do all the evacuation drills they are supposed to, but when things go really wrong, the people in charge tend to be more interested in pointing fingers than in doing what is right.

There are a variety of injuries which can result in amputation. Though never the first choice for treatment, sometimes there is nothing that can be done to save a limb. In these circumstances, the surgeon will proceed with the amputation in order to save the person’s life.

When a terrible incident in Seattle, Washington on September 27th, 2015 left 50 people injured and four people dead, authorities immediately searched for an answer. A duck boat, a special type of amphibious tour vehicle in the area, had collided with a bus, but no one was initially certain what went wrong. Federal investigators were dispatched to the scene to see if they could determine the cause of the accident.

A property management firm is claiming that it was an “Act of God” that led to an elevator accident that killed a 37 year old man on October 2nd, 2015. According to the company, there was nothing that could have been done to prevent the terrible tragedy, because “acts of God cannot be foreseen and intervened.”

A major breakthrough in Birmingham, England has the potential to put an end to scarring caused by burns. The developers are ready to make a trial run, treating burn victims in the area with these new patches that stimulate the regrowth of normal tissue rather than scar tissue. If the first trials in the local hospital are successful, they are hoping to take the product worldwide in the next few years.

It’s easy to blame the mother whenever anything goes wrong during pregnancy. But research suggests there are a variety of reasons for things like premature labor and injury during birth, and that many of these have a lot more to do with what the doctor does (or doesn’t do) than what the mother does.

September is sepsis awareness month. Sepsis remains an under-recognized killer of Americans, so setting aside time each year to work to make people aware of the signs and symptoms of sepsis is a worthy goal. Without a push to remind people of these types of devastating illnesses, too many of us will let opportunities slip away.

Blood thinners are the go-to treatment option for many people with blood clots, as the risk profile of these medications is frequently lower than other treatments. But for those who can’t tolerate blood thinners for a variety of reasons, there are other options. One of the more common treatments is a device called a blood clot filter.

Jackknife accidents, when a trailer or towed vehicle folds towards the towing vehicle either before or after a collision, are among the most dangerous types of accidents. When a vehicle, particularly a semi, jackknifes, there are almost always multiple others vehicles involved in the accident due to the fact the trailer usually slides into other lanes of traffic.

Medical Malpractice settlement in Pennsylvania for a young child who suffered from a severe injury to the intestinal tract due to a delay by the hospital and doctor in diagnosis and treating Necrotising Enterocolitis.Read More

Our client, a 52-year-old executive secretary had an extensive stay in a local Nassau County hospital. She was discharged and thereafter had persistent nausea and vomiting for a two-week period.Read More

Settlement with the State of New York in the Court of Claims for a victim who sustained brain damage while descending a recreational tube slide on a slope negligently designed by New York State.Read More

Verdict against Phillip Brothers Chemical Company, Inc. who failed to adequately warn a worker in an electroplating plant how to properly add zinc cyanide to a brass plating mixture resulting in an explosion causing burns and loss of vision in one eye.Read More

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The Finz & Finz, P.C. firm represents clients from New York and surrounding areas, including New York City (NYC), Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, Nassau County, Suffolk County, throughout New York state and nationwide.